Limited Express (Has Gone?)

Japanese experimental punk trio Limited Express (Has Gone?) formed in Kyoto in 1998, bringing together guitarist Iida Jinichiro, bass/vocalist Yukari, and drummer Narazaki Koji. Their frenetic live performances and Yukari's eccentric on-stage persona coupled with the way they skipped between musical styles from one moment to the next meant that they were frequently the subject of comparisons with other well-known bands from the Kansai area such as the Boredoms, Shonen Knife, and contemporaries Afrirampo. Yukari also plays in Kyoto girl group Ni-Hao! while Iida plays in Kyoto punk supergroup Ultra Jr. As organisers of Kyoto's Borofesta underground music festival, they were a well-known feature of the local music scene as well as stars on Japanese college radio, but it wasn't until 2003 that the band landed their first recording deal, releasing Feeds You, recorded by Inoue Shuichi from Fukuoka blues punks Folk Enough, on John Zorn's Tzadik label. The album's lo-fi sound captured the manic energy of Limited Express (Has Gone?)'s live performances and was generally well received by critics.

With the album under their belts they embarked on a series of tours, including an appearance at South by Southwest in 2004, a year which also saw the band record a cover version of Rip Rig & Panic's "Beat the Beast" for the new wave cover album Fine Time: A Tribute to New Wave. The following year, they released the split EP Experimental Express Explorer with U.S. band Experimental Dental School, the live album Live at the 101 Bar on Australian label Tenzenmen, and a new original album Makes You Dance on the Tokyo-based Memory Lab label. Makes You Dance expanded the group's sound to include more pop moments and a more mature understanding of song structure but retained the essentially lo-fi nature of their previous recorded output, securing Limited Express (Has Gone?)'s position as one of the most sought after underground acts in Japan. The pressure of touring, however, led to the departure of Narazaki, who was replaced by Matsushita Takuya of Kyoto indie/post rock band Astrolove. 2006's Ikenie no Jesus Child mini-album combined some new material with remixes of older tracks by some Kansai scene contemporaries. It was followed by the best-of compilation The Best Is Coming, but after that the bend temporarily split up, re-emerging in Tokyo in late 2007 with yet another new drummer, TDK of Tokyo noise punks Joy. True to their already erratic form, they immediately went on hiatus again while Yukari had a baby; they released their first new material in two years in spring 2008 in the form of a split album with Osaka experimental new wave and electronic musician DODDODO entitled simply Limited Express (Has Gone?) x DODDODO.